Cuckoo Clock Repair
Servicing brands including (but not limited to):
- Anton Schneider
- D. Hones, Titisee-Neustadt
- H. Herr (Hubert Herr)
- Drubba
- Regula
- Schmeckenbecher (Schmeckenbecker)
- Schatz
- Koma
- Romba
- C.C.C. Triberg
- HECO
- Kuner
- Dold
- Cuendet
- Reuge
- MAPSA (MAP-SA)
- River City
- Lotscher
- Albert Schwab
- Karlsruhe
- and others
Also providing cuckoo clock repair for clocks that were made in (or are labeled) Black Forest, Germany, W. Germany, West Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria.
A cuckoo restoration by JFK
The cuckoo clock shown above presented JFK with substantial problems when it first came to the shop. Brand new in the 1980s, it had many years of prior use. A later fall off of a wall caused severe damage to the exterior case, including the complete detachment of the front lower decoration (pine trees that hide the water wheel’s and rabbits’ table drive chains). As a final indignation, many decades in a box in damp storage conditions, caused all of the clock’s steel parts to rust.
The owner brought it to JFK in the hopes that it could be restored to its former working condition.
The first photo shows the damaged clock with some of its detached parts in front of it, as it appeared when it arrived at JFK. Other photos show close-ups of the case damage, which include missing pieces of wood where the front lower decoration used to attach, and the badly-rusted chain that drives the water wheel and the rabbits’ table. (Missing from the rabbits’ table is a fox, who, when he’s there and the clock is running properly, the table rotates and the fox chases the rabbits).
JFK repaired the damaged wood, reattached the front decoration, and fully-restored the clock to as-new mechanical condition. The main mechanism and bellows were replaced, the music box was fully rebuilt, and the chains and other steel parts were de-rusted and cleaned. It is now as good as new. It can be seen operating in the video above. Note the fox chasing the rabbits, and the bell that rings, at the clock’s rooftop!
Services Offered
- New clock setup and testing, troubleshooting
- Re-hang chains
- Minor repair/adjustment
- Case repairs
- Major repair/mechanism replacement (with music box rebuild/replacement)
- Overhaul/complete mechanical rebuilding for antique or obsolete models
Many clock shops can’t repair your cuckoo clock, don’t know how to, or do not want to. Perhaps you’ve been told that cuckoo clocks are “junk”, “cannot be repaired”, or are “not worth repairing”.
Your cuckoo clock is probably of substantial sentimental value to you, and its proper operation is important to you. You don’t want it “tinkered with”, nor do you want it repaired by someone who has told you that your cuckoo clock is junk, not repairable, or “not worth it”.
Whether you’re located close to JFK Clock or across the country, JFK is happy to repair your cuckoo clock.
Expert Cuckoo Clock Repair
From that little old cuckoo clock a family member in the military brought home to you from a military “PX Store” in Germany in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s; to that large, ornate, and beautiful souvenir cuckoo clock from the Black Forest that you bought at Drubba or the House of 1000 Clocks (or elsewhere) in more recent times (and nearly anything from the decades in between), I can repair most models that were manufactured in the last 50 to 70 years.
For cuckoo clocks older than this, such as those from the late 1800s and early 1900s, I can repair this type as well.
Dedication
Full-service cuckoo clock repair. I have the tools, equipment, and parts inventory required to repair modern cuckoos properly. For antique/obsolete models, I have a complete machine shop onsite, for the custom-manufacture of repair parts that can no longer be purchased.
Experience
In fact, a lifetime of experience in the cuckoo clock business: I learned the business not from a book or a video tape, but from my father as I grew up. In the 1970s and 1980s, while my young peers were watching television and playing video games (or worse), I was usually in the basement of our home, in my father’s watch and clock shop, learning the clock repair business from him.
My father was one of the first, and one of the only…. competent cuckoo clock repairmen in the Boston-area in the 1980s. If you (or your parent or grandparent) brought your cuckoo clock to any one of a number of Boston-area repair shops or jewelry stores in the 1980s, it most likely was repaired by my father in our basement in Stoneham, MA. No other shops wanted to work on them, and my father was one of the only repairmen in the area who knew how to. This is where I learned the basics of the business.
In 1987, when my father opened The Watchmaker store in Stoneham, he continued cuckoo repairs for his retail customers there.
In 1993, I began doing all of The Watchmaker’s cuckoo repairs for my father and continued to do so until 2006 when I opened JFK Clock Repair.
Musical cuckoo clocks (that play a musical tune after the bird has cuckooed, such as: Edelweiss, Dr. Zhivago, Walk in the Black Forest, The Happy Wanderer, etc.) are one of my specialties, and are done properly. During the last 30-plus years, I have rebuilt many hundreds of cuckoo clock music movements, including those by Romance, Gueissaz-Jaccard, Reuge, Cuendet, and MAPSA (MAP-SA).
2-Year Guarantee
For major cuckoo clock repairs, I offer a 2-year guarantee that covers parts and labor (“major” means complete parts replacement, or complete mechanical rebuilding). Minor repairs or adjustments are not guaranteed.
What to Expect
Cuckoo clocks that have received a major repair from JFK are returned to you as good as new, and they work properly. They don’t “sort of work”, and they don’t “sometimes work”, they work!
Your cuckoo clock will do what it’s supposed to do, and do it properly and consistently (as well as it did when it was brand new) whether it just tells time and “cuckoos”, or, if it also has “complications” such as: music, moving water wheels, dancers, beer drinkers, woodcutters and axe choppers, kissing couples, moving animals, or other complex features that frighten many repair shops away or baffle them during the “repair”.
Final Word
If you’ve ever been told that cuckoos are “junk”, or “can’t be repaired”; or you’ve been told by a repairman that “he can fix it, except for the music”; or if you have ever paid someone to try to “fix” your cuckoo clock and were discouraged that it “never really worked right after you got it back”…. please inquire with me if you’d like me to look at it for you.